Which Niche is Best?

Yes, dating, loving, fitness, making money, coupons and weightloss are extremely popular, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're the money makers for the start-up niche blogger.  So, question:

Which niches have the greatest chances of eBook or product sales?
I shall investigate.  

Concise Summary: "How to Profit from Niche Websites"

Listened to an absolutely amazing interview, "How To Profit From Niche Websites By Adam Short",  by Yaro Starak, blogger, and founder of Entrepreneurs-Journey.  I've been pouring into podcasts and articles surrounding internet marketing, and hands-down, this was the most useful and impressive piece of information I have found yet.   So much so, I took detailed notes - stopping the podcast repeatedly to make sure I captured everything.  I include them below, but strongly recommend the original. 

Questions to Ask Your Affiliate Manager (AM)

[Source: Nickycake.com] 

Once you join an affiliate network, it's an excellent idea to personally introduce yourself to your affiliate manager,  your affiliate network customer service representative.  They are their to help you.  It's in their best interest to see you succeed.  Afterall, the more money you make, the more money you make for them, so get to know them.  Be careful about oversharing inside information about your campaigns though until you know they can be trusted.

Payouts are negotiable.  If you feel you need/deserve more, you can ask for it. Send only legitimate leads, make sure of the rules. Some networks don't allow

Doooood.  I had no idea that Youtube had GoogleAdsense built in.  NO idea.  Why didn't you tell me?!?! omg!!!  Sweeeet!

Best Niches (Per http://experienceadvertising.com/)

From Experience Advertising, Feb 24, 2011

So when you are looking at affiliate programs to promote there are several very common affiliate niches that have been good performers over the years. These include:

•   Gift
•   Dating offers
•   Surveys offers
•   Consumer electronics
•   Jewelry
•   Insurance lead offers
•   Financial lead offers
•   Parenting/babies offers
•   Sports-related
•   Health-related
•   Car/auto affiliate
•   Flower affiliate
•   Costume

These are but a few niches that have historically done well for affiliates, but all types of

Affiliate Marketing: Catch a Fish or Own the Fishery

Be a fisherman, or own the fishery and have the fisherman bring you fish.
Be an affiliate, or create a product and have affiliates work for you. 

10 Affiliate Marketing Podcasts

Courtesy: Geno Prussakov

1. Affiliate ABCs and Merchant ABCs — Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare discuss affiliate marketing-related topics with affiliates, program managers, and merchants.
2. Affiliate Buzz — One of the industry’s oldest podcasts, where since 2003 James Martell is ” keeping affiliates informed, inspired and motivated”.
3. Affiliate Marketing Fanatics — A podcast where “a couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things affiliate marketing”.
4. Affiliate Marketing Today — A “Think Tank radio show hosted by the team at RevenueWire.com that offers knowledge and analysis on e-commerce conversion strategies and current issues in affiliate marketing”.
5. Affiliate Thing — Affiliate marketing commentary, interviews, and various segments hosted by Lisa Picarille and Shawn Collins.
6. AffiliateVoices.com — Greg Hoffman and Cindy Ballard interview the world’s top affiliates.
7. Both Sides of the Track — Jason Rubacky and Eric Nagel discuss industry issues from two different points of view: as an affiliate and as an affiliate development manager.
8. Coffee Talk Interviews — Another podcast by James Martell where through interviews he is communicating how “to make money by building profitable websites from the ground up”.
9. Geek Dads Weekly, Inside Internet Marketing, Be a Better Podcaster, and other podcasts produced by Daniel M. Clark are awesome for affiliate marketers to follow.
10. PMA Industry Report — “Performance Marketing Association Industry Report, a podcast” hosted by Lisa Picarille and “dedicated to the most pressing issues impacting advertisers, publishers, networks and agencies.”

Start Monetizing Your Blog Today

"Start Monetizing Your Blog Today" all-women panel discussion at the Affiliate Summit West 2010, which took place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas.

Panelists:

• Carolyn Tang:  Director of Affiliate Marketing for Groupon, Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award for Affiliate Manager of the Year 2010.  Carolyn formerly led client services team at ShareASale.com affiliate, managed affiliate programs at Orbitz, CollectiblesToday.com and MyPoints.com. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Loyola University of Chicago. She has earned a MBA from Loyola & MSJ in Journalism from Northwestern.
• Trisha Meyer: Lawyer turned affiliate, makes pop culture sites for fun.
• Kristin President and owner of Madhatter Affiliate Manager, manages affiliate programs

Monetize Video Curation? "Magnify"

ComScore Video Metrix reported that in September 2011, 182 million Americans watched about 19.5 hours of online video each, for a grand total of 39.8 billion (yes BILLION) views.   That is a lot of video consumption.  And that is probably also a lot of hunting and sifting of videos.  As video consumption and production continues to explode, we'll need ways to manage the sheer magnitude of content.  Queue the curator, the source that we trust, helping us filter out the garbage, turn down the volume, and pre-screen the noise.  Like article curation, video curation interests me - as does the potentiality for the monetization of those efforts.

Life Update

ANNIE ON PINTEREST

Ok, I've been sitting in this chair for an ungodly amount of hours, (since the moment I opened my eyes, minus bio-breaks), constructing weirdo posts, and browsing articles in a schizoid fashion.  Clearly it's time for a 5 minute break.  Then.  I plan to return to this ungodly chair, pull open 1 of the 10 affiliate marketing podcasts I found last night, listen, and Pinterest a new board 'till I drop.

See you on the flipside.

MUAH!!!!!!!

XoXo,

a


2/12/12 STARDATE ADDENDUM: Instead, I fell asleep.  14 hours of work was enough, I guess. :)

EW! Pinterest is for Girls!

Yeah well, could be, but I suggest you suck it up!  Cuz' if you let a few little cooties scare you off, you're gonna seriously miss out!

I find that statement highly suspect.  Why should I listen to YOU?
Hmm.  Undeniably good point.  Because it could be fun?  Because it could quite possibly present some excellent opportunities to generate content marketing revenue?

Hmm. Well, revenue doesn't completely suck.  But WHAT IS Pinterest?! 
It's another social network!  You like Facebook, right?  You like Twitter, right?

Yeah, so -  what is SPECIAL about Pinterest?
It's simplicity.  The clean user interface.  The strictly visual playground where users simply find stuff  they like, and pin!   See?  No brains needed!  Like a picture book without any dumb words!  Your kinda book!  Just loads of fun, fun, fun!   SWEET, right?!

Timeline: Is Facebook Just Messing With Us Now?

      
I see that my Facebook account has involuntarily changed to the new "timeline" format. I see that Facebook is soliciting my "feedback" on said timeline. So I offered feedback:

Timeline is,

...cumbersome, not intuitive, aesthetically muddled, and not user friendly at all....   I am completely bewildered as to the logic of radically transforming an interface that has met with more success than any other application known to humankind!   I can only imagine that it will antagonize legions of users.  WHY?

I'm a little frustrated.  Can you tell?

What is Squidoo?

"If you are new to Internet Marketing, I HIGHLY recommend starting with Squidoo.  With Squidoo, you can receive feedback and see RESULTS very, very quickly.  Learning how to make high-quality, profit-producing lenses can get money in the bank that much faster.  I don't care if you don't know the first thing about making a web site... you WILL learn how to make a proper Squidoo page with this system."

I've never heard of Squidoo before today; but apparently it's a user-generated website that allows "lensmasters" to have web space to discuss 35 different "lenses".

Donut Logic

Who's Your Social Media Daddy?

LinkedIn announced on Thursday that they have 150 million members in their network,

Referral Traffic Trends

Referral Traffic Trends, per Mashable

• July 2011 to January 2012 Pinterest Referral Traffic increased 0.17% to 3.6%   (Massive growth)
• Twitter:     3.61% of referral traffic
• Facebook: 26.4% of referral traffic, (4.3% from Facebook Mobile)
• YouTube: 1.05%
• Google+:  Declined from 0.24% of referrals to 0.22%  in past month
• Google:    Declined from 3.69% to 3.62%

Cool Advice from @problogger Today

"The takeaway from this experience is to keep in mind the visitors who may be unaware of your area of expertise. It is not so much about showing a video. It is about helping a first time visitor feel at home.
I used to think of my blog as a niche blog, but now it is open to anyone who has an Internet connection and a set of problems."

Pinterest and Affiliate Marketing

You might wanna have a seat.

Cuz' I'm about ta' BLOW YER MIND.

I've been hesitating, neglecting, avoiding this whole new-fangled Pinterest thang - but

*BRAINSTORM*

WHAT IF

"pinned" items were to connect to affiliate links?

Although I do have a Pinterest account, I haven't used it, at all.  I've been highly resistant, despite the epic mounting buzz surrounding the platform.  So last night I decided to check it out.  (Well there wasn't alot of checking, but I  knew it was about "pinboards" so I jumped in).   To my delight, I noticed that you can actually hyperlink the pins!   So off I went -  linking away the cutest, most irresistible products ever known to humankind using my Amazon affiliate links.  (Amazon is such a well known and trusted company, I thought it would make it comfortable for folks to use).   Within an hour of so, my board was shaping up quite nicely.

Then something happened.

Something unexpected.

Something AMAAAAZING.